Vita Peter Riedel

Peter Riedel grew up in the spa town of Oberwiesenthal, in the midst of an environment where winter sports are part of everyday life. His father Eberhard Riedel was a successful alpine skier and shaped the family’s sporting line. Peter Riedel was already standing on skis at the age of three. Four years later, the first races followed.

In the following fifteen years Peter Riedel was active as an alpine racer and took part in several European Cup races. The path to the very top in international elite sport did not continue, but just in this time the Blick for snow, material, competition and technical conditions emerged, which later became important for sport technology.

In 1982 Peter Riedel began training as a carpenter. Six years later he began an engineering degree for structural engineering in Leipzig, which he completed in a short time. Afterwards he worked several years as a self-employed structural engineer. Craft, static, planning and construction thus became the second foundation of his career path.

Meanwhile, Peter Riedel remained connected to winter sports in his homeland. In the late 1990s, he was among the founding members of ASC Oberwiesenthal e. V. and served as its president until 2001. From 2014 to 2016, he led WSC Erzgebirge Oberwiesenthal e. V.

In 2003, Peter Riedel again bridged to high-performance sports. For the construction of the ski tunnel in Oberhof, he did pioneering work as part of a feasibility study. The foundations created there fed into the construction of a year-round training facility where cross-country skiing and biathlon can be trained regardless of the season.

A year later, Peter Riedel presented to the FIS Ski Jump Construction Commission in Willingen a combined summer and winter approach track developed by him. The system connected a porcelain track for summer with a cooled ice track for winter. From this technical idea originated the basis for MASTERTRACK and for the Peter Riedel GmbH's international ramp-trace technology.

From Raschau, launch rails were delivered to the world. The mentioned locations include Sapporo, Holmenkollen in Oslo, Bergisel in Innsbruck, Bischofshofen and Trondheim. More than 127 ski jumping ramps worldwide have been equipped with Peter Riedel GmbH launch rail systems.

In addition to entrepreneurship, building construction, and design, Peter Riedel developed another activity: writing. As an author and freelance journalist, he picks up topics from winter sports; this was followed by the book Traces of Success, which he co-wrote with his father.